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Consumer behavior is the behavior of people – at home, in the store, on the street – just about everywhere people are thinking about, purchasing, using and being satisfied or dissatisfied with their products. Consumer researchers have captured the experiences and perceptions of such real people in the study of decision processes, feelings, and reactions as individuals and as part of families and other groups. Some of those everyday shoppers, however, may be challenged by disabilities, affecting the products which are purchased and where these purchases take place. The study of consumer behavior can be further enriched by developing a program for conceptual evaluation and actual research focussing on the special and everyday needs of such challenged shoppers. Such a perspective leads to the possibility for uncovering product, advertising, and retail opportunities which better meet the needs and wants of such customers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of disabled service providers on customers’ evaluations of service quality and behavioural intentions.

The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of online reviews from samples collected in a “dining-in-the-dark” restaurant, which employs blind waiters, and from a restaurant that employs deaf servers. The authors also put forth three quantitative analyses that use survey methodology.

Based on word clouds generated by online data, the findings show that customers treat the hiring of disabled service providers as the most prominent clue in their perceptions of organizational service quality. The quantitative results further illustrate that customers who hold more favourable attitudes towards disabled employees are more likely than other customers to spread positive word-of-mouth (WOM). Another analysis reveals that attitudes towards disabled employees are a separate construct from human compassion.

Customers’ attitudes towards disabled frontline service employees represent a service quality driver. The authors offer researchers an exploratory scale on consumer attitudes towards the hiring of disabled employees to further refine and develop for future validation.

Retail organizations may be able to obtain a competitive advantage by employing frontline disabled people through customer WOM communications. These communications are linked to positive organizational outcomes.

Retail and service researchers know considerably little about customers’ perceptions of interacting with disabled employees. This paper represents original research that encourages retail and service organization to employ disabled frontline employees.

The disability movement is a new social movement (Fagan & Lee, 1997; Shakespeare, 1993) based on identity politics (Anspach, 1979). Activists seek material benefits, challenge cultural constructions of disability, and create new collective identities on the part of recruits. Mobilization in this status-based movement, as in other new social movements, has focused in part on cultural and symbolic issues of identity (Bernstein, 2005; Johnston, Larana, & Gusfield, 1994; Shakespeare & Watson, 2001). Status-based movements challenge stigmatized identities that are externally imposed. Identities can be deployed strategically by movement activists and recruiters for multiple goals, including changing cultural representations of the group, gaining access to institutions, and/or transforming participants (Bernstein, 2005).

Successful advertising must attract attention, communicate clearly, and ideally be memorable for optimum impact. The basic processes of encoding and decoding underlie successful communication, but advertisers often neglect to test for accessibility by visually‐disabled persons. The present paper will present a framework for detecting information‐processing problems and illustrate the use of this framework by analyzing the responses of color‐deficient consumers.

The purpose of this study is both to explore how people with “hidden” auditory disorders experience exclusion in servicescapes and to unfold the coping strategies they set up to deal with it.

Findings from 15 semi-structured interviews and participant observations with individuals suffering from auditory disorders are presented through the paper.

The findings indicate that individuals with auditory disorders deploy three types of coping strategies when exposed to sensory overload in servicescapes: choosing between physical servicescapes, opting for electronic devices and e-servicescapes and delegating shopping to relatives.

The study underlines how, through temporary or permanent modifications of servicescape cues, service providers give consumers opportunities to bypass situations involving sensory overload. Implications for e-servicescapes and public policy are also raised.

The findings reveal how the coping strategies used by individuals with auditory disorders contribute to their exclusion from the marketplace on the basis of both individual characteristics and types of servicescapes.

Centres on measuring lodging operator compliance with regard to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The intent was to measure current level of physical compliance with the ADA; future plans in meeting or exceeding ADA requirements; and barriers which impeded complete compliance. The participants in this study were selected from a list of hotels and motels contained in the 1994 version of the Hotel and Travel Index. The lodging operations were represented by full service, limited service and economy properties which varied from 25 to 615 guest rooms per property, restaurant, and meeting facilities. The findings of this study suggested that total compliance has not been achieved in certain areas, vagueness of the legislation is not necessarily a barrier in compliance, and financial constraints are a barrier in non‐compliance. Implies that lodging operators must properly position their products and services, otherwise the disabled travellers’ needs will not be totally met, and that lodging operators need to continue their civic respon‐ sibility for meeting the needs of the disabled travellers’ needs.

The objective of this study is to determine the relative importance that the visually impaired give to restaurant service attributes during leisure outings, and the relative utility they allocate to the various levels of these attributes.

The study was conducted in two stages. The first stage consisted of exploratory research using focus groups; the second consisted of a survey using a structured questionnaire administered to 203 visually impaired consumers; conjoint analysis was used.

The ideal restaurant profile for survey respondents is one in which: the menu is read by the server; service is provided by empathetic servers; low‐intensity light and sound are used; round tables are preferred over rectangular tables; and the server can be summoned using a button.

The use of a non‐probabilistic sample may limit the generalizability of findings.

This study's results can be useful to restaurant managers by improving their understanding of the needs of visually‐impaired consumers.

The study contributes to the inclusion in society of the visually impaired as consumers by giving them a voice to express their needs and wants.

Previous studies have not considered the relative utility conferred to restaurant attributes by consumers. The use of conjoint analysis allows the evaluation of the relative importance of these attributes and their levels, while at the same time shedding light on tradeoffs made by the visually impaired consumer in selecting restaurant attributes.

Consumers with Down syndrome are present in all countries, but there has been little marketing research examining their consumption experiences. The purpose of this exploratory investigation is the analysis of the consumption meanings and practices of Down syndrome adults from their own point of view and from their families’ perspectives.

Data was drawn from 44 narratives interviews that included families'stories, description of album photos and projective techniques.

The research shows from the families’ perspectives how barriers to consumption prevent Down syndrome adults from becoming agentic consumers. The findings reveal the “labels” associated with the vulnerability of people with Down syndrome and their families in their market experiences.

Research is limited to a single country and location and is focused on a specific group of overlooked consumers. We encourage the expansion of the research to a wider group and different locations.

The research identifies barriers to social inclusion that can support public policy and marketing manangement that contribute to a more humanistic marketing.

The research presents narratives of adults with Down syndrome, their mothers and siblings. The findings contribute to a comprehension about the welfare of this traditionally neglected, vulnerable group of consumers, which is useful for consumers, Down syndrome people and their families, marketing managers and public policymakers.

This paper provides insight into the behaviour and attitudes of an under‐researched group of consumers, and identifies some useful pointers for future research on consumer disadvantage. More specifically, the paper explores the relationships between the potential causes of consumer disadvantage, forms of consumer disadvantage and accessibility. The exploratory study consisted of a combination of quantitative (diary survey) and qualitative (semi‐structured interviews) methods. The diary survey data were used to measure grocery retailing accessibility for each participant, while the semi‐structured interviews captured participants’ attitudes, preferences and expectations with regard to grocery shopping, which were then used to construct a context for the accessibility findings. The findings suggest a way in which consumer disadvantage can be conceptualised, recommend the use of qualitative methods when researching this area, and highlight issues of interest (such as identifying whether an individual shops through choice or constraint) which could be considered by future research designs.

Examines the plight and characteristics of a sample of mobility‐disabled consumers and, using primary information, looks at their sources of information, shopping patterns and decision criteria. Shows that the mobility disabled represent a unique market compared with the nondisabled, and discusses managerial implications relevant to the services marketer.